Who is credited with developing the Toyota Production System?

Taiichi Ohno is credited with developing the Toyota Production System.

Ohno was a Toyota engineer and executive who helped turn ideas about waste reduction, continuous improvement, and demand-based production into a coordinated manufacturing system. He developed the practical framework behind just-in-time production and helped establish methods that allowed factories to make only what was needed, when it was needed.

The system was not the work of one person alone. Kiichiro Toyoda had earlier promoted just-in-time production, while Sakichi Toyoda’s automatic looms provided the philosophical and technical roots of “jidoka,” or stopping a process when a defect occurs. Eiji Toyoda strongly supported Ohno and helped spread the methods throughout Toyota.

Even so, Ohno is the standard answer because he was the central figure who systematized these ideas on the factory floor. Toyota Production System later became a major influence on lean manufacturing worldwide, with just-in-time and jidoka recognized as two of its defining pillars.